That definitely isn’t what you should do when a website goes down, but we do have 12 alternative ideas of what to do. All suggested by unbelievably supportive (and gorgeous and glamorous) MakeUseOf readers. Perhaps you were one of them.

It was very refreshing to receive a mix of responses that ranged from studiously serious to lackadaisically lighthearted, with a few offhandedly offbeat answers thrown in for good measure.

This all means we have been able to compile a list of 12 things to do when your website goes down; some containing real advice, others providing nothing more than a giggle or two.

Visit an alternative website

Write an email

Keep refreshing the page

Play a PC game

Use The Wayback Machine

Go outside

Try the mobile version

Use some expletives

Clear the cache

Do something more productive

Cry

Panic

Whichever of these courses of action you personally choose to do when you experience some Internet downtime, remember that someone, somewhere is desperately trying to fix everything. Whether that’s a qualified engineer enacting a process most of us wouldn’t understand, or some kid turning their modem off and on again, websites rarely remain offline for long.

We chose this comment because it made us laugh. “Seppuku,” for those who don’t know, is a form of ritual suicide undertaken in Medieval Japan. While that’s clearly no laughing matter, the idea of committing harakiri because you can’t access your favorite website is so ridiculous it becomes comical.

We Ask You is a weekly column in which you have your say about a particular subject. We ask you a question each week, with the results compiled and compressed into a follow-up article the following week. This column is nothing without your input, all of which is valued.